Dear Universe

A wildly witty and deeply profound chronicle of teenage anxiety and yearning, perfect for fans of Jesse Andrews and Robyn Schneider.

It’s senior year, and Chamomile Myles has whiplash from traveling between her two universes: school (the relentless countdown to prom, torturous college applications, and the mindless march toward an uncertain future) and home, where she wrestles a slow, bitter battle with her father’s terminal illness. Enter Brendan, a man-bun-and tutu-wearing hospital volunteer with a penchant for absurdity, who strides boldly between her worlds–and helps her open up a new road between them.

Dear Universe is the dazzling follow-up to Florence Gonsalves’s debut, Love and Other Carnivorous Plants, hailed by School Library Journal as “a must-have sharp, powerful, and witty immersion into the complexities of . . . mental health.”

Being a teenage girl was hard: school, parents, just generally having a head on top of a body. I’ve had a little distance from those years, but I haven’t forgotten how rocky they were, or how the right book could throw me a life raft as I navigated the salty teen seas of body pressures, boy pressures, balancing-a-gazillion-things pressures. I love writing for young adults because I get to tap into those years, channel some of my feelings and experiences into fiction with the hopes of writing books that reflect the messiness of growing up, especially growing up a girl.

In my second book, Dear Universe, Chamomile is an eighteen year old girl who feels like she’s living in two worlds: one involves senior year and graduation and friends and boyfriends and the other world is her home life where her dad is dying of Parkinson’s Disease. It took almost three years to write this book. It’s raw and personal, as I drew from my own experience of having a dad with a degenerative illness. In setting out to write this story, I wanted a female character who was real, who didn’t always do the right thing, and certainly didn’t have perfectly contained emotions. One of the narratives I’d unknowingly swallowed as a teen of our patriarchal society is that angry girls are crazy girls. Girls can’t get mad without being called insane, impolite, volatile, uncivilized. While sadness is a fine emotion for a girl – tears, trembling lips, dripping mascara - anger is a taboo response, especially to something like a sick parent.

*"A pitch-perfect take on what happens when the future you imagined
doesn't live up to expectations.... This genuinely funny novel about
some harrowing topics manages to balance humor and pathos perfectly.
Readers who connected with J.J. Johnson's Believarexic or Sam J. Miller's The Art of Starving will want this book, as well as the many John Green fans who crave intelligent stories that occupy both shadow and light."--Booklist, starred review

"Fans of Sarah Dessen will appreciate Danny's relatable and realistic
journey. A must-have sharp, powerful, and witty immersion into the
complexities of sexual identity and mental health." --School Library Journal

"Gonsalves realistically conveys Danny's wide range of emotions.... Her
most profound realization comes through accepting that she can live her
life on her own terms and that she need not have it all figured out
quite yet." --Publishers Weekly

"Self-deprecating, witty.... As funny as it is painful." --VOYA

"A hilarious, thoughtful novel of trying to figure out loving other
people when it hurts, and loving yourself when it's impossible." --Teenreads.com

"Will appeal to students who deal with anxiety and the pressures of life that many teens face." --School Library Connection